A Faith Community on the Northwest Edge of Cedar Rapids
Lovely Lane United Methodist Church sits on the corner of 42nd Street and Wenig Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, next to Kennedy High School. The congregation took shape in the early 1960s on the northwest edge of the city, and when its founders needed a name, they reached across the country to Baltimore, Maryland. The Cedar Rapids church is named for Lovely Lane Methodist Church in Baltimore, the site of the famous 1784 Christmas Conference that brought the Methodist Episcopal Church into existence. That Baltimore congregation is widely called the "mother church" of American Methodism, and the Cedar Rapids Lovely Lane has carried that historical name with pride for more than sixty years. Lead Pastor Rev. Dr. Scott Meador recently traveled to Baltimore, toured the Romanesque stone sanctuary, and stood in the museum archives with John Wesley's own copy of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ.
Today the church describes itself as "a dynamic faith community that seeks to welcome all people, nurture one another in the faith, and reach out in ministry and service." Its vision statement pairs worship with what the church calls Worship + 2, asking every member to be active in worship and to join two groups in the church, one focused on study and the other on service. The people of Lovely Lane stand with those who are devalued because of color, gender, marital status, creed, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, immigration status, or economic condition, and they serve neighbors who need food, housing, education, or health care. "Come as you are," the church says, "At Lovely Lane you are cherished, celebrated, and accepted."
Two Sunday Mornings at 8:30 and 10:30
From mid-September through Memorial Day weekend, the church gathers twice on Sunday mornings. The early service begins at 8:30 AM and runs 45 to 50 minutes, leaving time for adults to slip into Sunday School at 9:30. The later service begins at 10:30 AM and runs about an hour, with music from the Chancel Choir or the handbell choir AcabeLLa and a Children's Time with the pastor. Coffee and donuts fill Fellowship Hall between the two services, and the 10:30 service is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel.
From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, the schedule collapses to one service at 9:30 AM, with no Sunday School in either children's or adult classrooms. The summer worship hour usually includes special music from members and often adds story time or a cooking activity for children.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month. Special Sundays such as Easter, Palm Sunday, All Saints Sunday, Pentecost, and Christmas tend to be more formal. Worship is described as lively and meaningful, filled with music and singing, and open to everyone. Dress is wide-ranging: most people dress up a little for worship, but casual dress is always present and accepted. Whatever the time, whatever the style, visitors are always welcome.
Children's Time and Sunday School
About fifteen to twenty minutes into the 10:30 service, the pastor invites the children forward for a brief Children's Time. Afterwards, children pre-kindergarten through fifth grade are led as a group to their own Sunday School classrooms, where they stay until a parent or guardian picks them up after the service. The arrangement lets children learn to be in worship without having to sit still for a full hour, and gives parents space to hear the sermon. During Sunday School the children sing, explore the Bible at their level, and work on crafts.
Two Sunday School times run during the school year, at 9:30 and 10:30, and a middle school class meets at 9:30. Nursery care is also available for younger children. During the summer, Sunday School takes a break, but activities like story time and cooking are offered during the single worship service.
For a full week each summer, the church runs Vacation Bible School for children through fifth grade, with crafts, food, singing, and games built around a single theme. The children present their favorite songs in Sunday morning worship the following Sunday. Lock-ins are offered to different age groups once a year, and Read and Feed events invite children to the church to share favorite books, snack, and play.
Adult Sunday School and Wednesday Study
Two adult Sunday School classes meet at 9:30 on Sunday mornings during the school year. Faith Issues gathers in the church library and works through current issues from a faith perspective. Faith Journeys meets in the preschool wing and is led by Pastor Scott, who takes a closer look at the scripture readings from that morning's worship.
On Wednesdays, Pastor Scott leads study groups that are usually book studies rather than standard Bible studies. A morning group gathers on Zoom at 9:30 AM, and an evening group meets in the church library at 6:00 PM. Topics have ranged from world religions, using Stephen Prothero's God Is Not One, to The Difficult Words of Jesus. A women's study group meets at different times of the year, often at noon in the Fireside Room.
Every spring, members bring Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper to life during Holy Week, portraying the disciples in the Living Last Supper. On the third Saturday of each month at 8:30 AM, men gather at the church for breakfast, devotions, and a guest speaker.
Wednesday Nights: Kids' Club and Youth
Wednesday evenings during the school year are a rhythm of their own at Lovely Lane. The night begins at 5:15 PM with a family meal in Fellowship Hall, and from 6:00 to 7:00 PM the children of Kids' Club move into their own program. Children pre-kindergarten through fifth grade are divided into small groups by age for Bible stories, crafts, games, and singing.
Confirmation happens every other year for seventh and eighth graders, meeting on Wednesday evenings from September through April, 6:00 to 7:00 PM. The curriculum is built around four pillars, Love God, Love Self, Love Others, and Mentoring, with each weekly session combining a lesson, a spiritual practice, a service project, and a meeting with a personal faith mentor. Lessons cover United Methodist doctrine and history, and the group also visits a variety of different worship communities, attends a fall retreat, and serves around the city.
Youth ministries at Lovely Lane run from sixth grade through twelfth grade. Wednesday Night Youth, held jointly with St. Paul's UMC, begins with the family meal at 5:30 PM and runs programming from 6:00 to 7:30 PM. The Sunday Afternoon Youth Co-Op, partnered with St. Paul's UMC and Trinity St James UMC, meets two or three Sundays a month at St. Paul's for service projects, community-building, and spiritual development. Each summer the youth group takes a middle school mission trip in June and a high school mission trip in July, with three additional hang-outs in June and July before taking August off.
Music in the Loft
Music has long been part of Lovely Lane's identity. The Chancel Choir sings most weeks at the 10:30 service during the school year, with the handbell choir AcabeLLa, led by Charlie Kucera, also contributing regularly. Kucera, who has directed the handbells since January 2019, composes and arranges music for the group and has performed with Opera Cedar Rapids and Orchestra Iowa. Nancy Patrick directs the Chancel Choir. The 8:30 AM service typically runs without the choirs, allowing it to be shorter.
Olivia Schneider directs the Children's Choir, and Linda Bayliss and Marcie Stumpf serve as accompanists. Special Sundays such as Easter, Christmas Eve, and All Saints draw larger musical forces, and members often share solo or small ensemble music in the summer single-service schedule. A sermon and worship archive on the YouTube channel goes back several years for anyone who wants to follow the music and preaching from afar.
Preschool, BASE, and Summer Care
Children's Weekday Ministries is one of the busiest arms of Lovely Lane. The ministry operates two state-licensed, non-profit preschool programs for children ages two through five, Lovely Lane Preschool at the church itself on 42nd Street NE and Trinity Lane Preschool at Asbury United Methodist Church on the west side of Cedar Rapids, plus the BASE Before and After School Enrichment program for kindergarten through fifth graders attending Pierce Elementary, which sits next door. A second preschool partnership also operates a program at St. Ludimilla Catholic Church, enrolling a large number of children from low-income families at a reduced tuition rate.
Lovely Lane Preschool uses the Creative Curriculum early childhood education system, with a lead teacher and a teacher associate in each classroom. The four-year-old classrooms at both Lovely Lane and Trinity Lane are part of the Cedar Rapids Community School District's Voluntary Preschool program, which means half-day classes are free for four-year-olds. The school year follows the Cedar Rapids Community School District calendar for weather delays and cancellations. Children do not need to be potty-trained.
BASE operates Monday through Friday from 6:30 AM to 5:45 PM. Staff escort children to Pierce Elementary at 8:40 AM and pick them up at 3:50 PM. Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 8:00 AM and a snack in the afternoon. The program offers before-only, after-only, before and after, and drop-in (pay per use) options, with care available on in-service days, Thanksgiving break, Spring Break, and during summer. The summer program for kindergarteners through graduating fifth graders is built around weekly themes such as Kickoff to Summer, Forces in Motion, Blast Off, Around the World, Super Hero Week, Christmas in July, Under the Sea, and Camp Lovely Lane, with daily field trips, pool visits, and plenty of outdoor time. All BASE staff are fingerprinted, background-checked, and trained in CPR and First Aid.
Lovely Lane supports Children's Weekday Ministries by providing physical space, utilities, custodial service, and financial donations so that reduced-tuition care can be offered to low-income families.
Missions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Cuba
At Lovely Lane, the word "missions" reaches from the neighborhood to the world. The church's mission statement describes a community that "humbly strives to be light, love and leaven to the world," and it invests time, talent, and money into partnerships that put that idea into practice.
Helping Hands Ministry provides emergency material assistance to neighbors in need, helping with rent, utilities, and supportive services and advocacy. Helping Hands volunteers help clients prioritize needs and connect them with community agencies and funding sources.
Each month the church opens its Fellowship Hall for the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, a faith-driven organization that provides free immigration legal services, education, and advocacy. Volunteers from Lovely Lane provide hospitality, welcome, and assistance completing intake forms for the volunteer attorneys.
Lovely Lane partners with Matthew 25 Ministry Hub, an independent Cedar Rapids nonprofit that strengthens core neighborhoods on the city's west side. Matthew 25 runs neighborhood building on the near NW side, the Cultivate Hope food education and neighborhood beautification program, and youth programs such as Book Buddies, school gardens, and the Groundswell art and entertainment venue.
Lovely Lane also supports Women at the Well, a United Methodist congregation that meets inside the walls of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, with worship, teaching, and the life-transforming Spirit of God at its center.
Across the Caribbean, the church shares a sister relationship with a Methodist church in Matanzas, Cuba. That partnership is one of the longest-running international connections at Lovely Lane and remains a focus of prayer, advocacy, and mutual support.
The church's endowment fund supports a Music Fund in honor of longtime choir director Leah Nelson, a Preschool Fund that provides scholarships for children in the mission preschool at Trinity Lane, and a Mission Fund that helps high school youth with mission work inside and outside the country.
United Women in Faith
The women's organization at Lovely Lane is part of United Women in Faith, the global United Methodist sisterhood that took its current name in March 2022 after more than 150 years as the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, the Women's Society of Christian Service, and United Methodist Women. The local unit at Lovely Lane meets as the Elizabeth Circle on the second Thursday of each month from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, combining program, executive board work, and working sessions, with childcare available by advance arrangement.
The Lovely Lane unit pledges annually to the Pictured Rocks District of United Women in Faith, supporting national and worldwide missions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines, as well as Iowa-based programs such as Families Forward, the merged successor to Hawthorn Hill and Bidwell Riverside. Locally, the unit funds scholarships for Lovely Lane and Trinity Lane preschoolers, supports mission trips, sustains the church's UWFaith reading program and library, and has committed to learning about issues such as labor and human trafficking.
The annual fall auction and potluck is one of the largest fundraisers of the year, with themed baskets, dessert-of-the-month subscriptions, handyman services, and game tickets. Each fall the women also gather at a location away from the church for a retreat of study, prayer, worship, and fellowship. Some retreats are only for a day and in town; other years overnight trips take place not far away.
Seniors, Friends, and the Reading Life
Lovely Lane has long-running groups for older members. Friendly Fellowship is a mostly-retired men and women's group that meets once a month in Fellowship Hall for a luncheon potluck. Happy Endings, a book discussion group, meets on the second Monday morning at 10:00 AM in the Fireside Lounge, working through current fiction and non-fiction selections chosen a couple of months ahead. The group meets year-round and welcomes both passionate and casual readers.
The Care Center Ministry sends volunteers to Northbrook Nursing Home and the Hiawatha Care Center, where they lead a mini-church service on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, plus a fifth Wednesday when the calendar has one. Volunteers read liturgy, talk with residents, and share items. Anyone is welcome to come along and see what this caring ministry is all about.
The Prayer Shawl Group stitches prayer shawls for new babies, Lovely Lane graduates, those who are ill, and those who are grieving. The group meets on the first and third Mondays of each month at 9:45 AM in the Fireside Room, and shawls and blankets are knitted, crocheted, or sewn.
Boy Scout Troop 766 also calls Lovely Lane home.
Weddings at Lovely Lane
Couples who wish to marry at Lovely Lane meet twice with one of the pastors. The first meeting is a get-acquainted conversation about spiritual and relational matters, and the second meeting focuses on planning the ceremony itself. Six months is not too early to begin. Lovely Lane also provides an experienced organist. The Fellowship Hall, which seats about 150, is available for receptions under the direction of the wedding coordinator.
Couples who are not yet members are encouraged to attend a regular worship service first to become familiar with Lovely Lane's style of worship and to decide whether the church is the right place for the ceremony.
What Lovely Lane Believes
The United Methodist Church is a worldwide denomination that "opens hearts, opens minds and opens doors through active engagement with our world." Lovely Lane's beliefs draw from that wider tradition. The early Methodists, following John Wesley, placed primary emphasis on Christian living and on putting faith and love into action, what Wesley called "practical divinity." That emphasis continues to define the church today. Scripture, church tradition, reason, and experience all reveal God.
The church baptizes people of any age, from infancy through adulthood, in ordinary water and at the hands of a minister, and teaches that baptism is God's act, not a denomination's. Communion is celebrated with bread and grape juice on the first Sunday of each month. The table is open, meaning visitors do not need to be members, baptized, or adults to receive. Confirmation is offered to eighth graders and older youth as preparation for full membership, and immersion confirmation is available for older youth.
Lovely Lane belongs to the United Methodist Church and the Pictured Rocks District. New member classes are held several times a year, and anyone considering membership is invited to contact one of the pastors.
Pastoral Leadership and Staff
Lead Pastor Rev. Dr. Scott Meador has served Lovely Lane since 2018, after previous appointments in Epworth, Solon, and Independence. He and his wife Heather have two adult daughters, and his community involvement includes the Downtown Rotary, Junior Achievement, and the Matthew 25 Advisory Board. Associate Pastor Dr. Alecia Hilmer started at Lovely Lane in January 2026 and serves part-time. Previously she served churches in North Liberty, Lamont/Aurora, Nashville, and Kansas City. She is married to Todd Hilmer, and together they have five adult children and six grandchildren.
The staff supporting ministry at Lovely Lane includes Director of Family Ministries Annie Walker, Director of Youth Ministries Kim Moore, Director of Children's Weekday Ministries Dawn DuPont, Choir Director Nancy Patrick, Handbell Director Charlie Kucera, Children's Choir Director Olivia Schneider, Nursery Supervisor Brooke Johnson, and Director of Media and Technology Eric Wylie.
A Place to Grow in Cedar Rapids
Lovely Lane United Methodist Church gathers at 2424 42nd Street NE, with the parking lot entered from Wenig Road. There are usually plenty of parking spaces in the church lot, and the lot next door at Kennedy High School is an option on non-school days. Services are held in English, with the 10:30 service livestreamed each Sunday on the church's YouTube channel and an archive of past services reaching back several years. Coffee and donuts fill Fellowship Hall between services on Sunday mornings. The church office is open Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.